A Leave voter has admitted on national television that he didn’t think his ballot would matter and is now shocked the UK will now leave the European Union.In a segment during the BBC’s rolling coverage of events, Adam was introduced as a Leave voter and asked for his reaction.He said: “I’m a bit shocked to be honest.“I’m shocked that we voted for Leave, I didn’t think that was going to happen.“I didn’t think my vote was going to matter too much because I thought we were just going to remain.”

“Oh dear,” they say, “I never realised that, when Johnson told us he would plough £350 million a week into the NHS if we voted Leave, he was actually lying”.

Well, what the hell do you think he was doing? Were you unable to access any of the media outlets, such as the BBC, ITV or the Full Fact website to find out that he was lying? Did it not occur to you that Johnson, of all politicians, who is a proven liar and a cheat [*3], would lie to you and cheat you? Someone who had repeatedly betrayed the trust of his wife? *, and his political “leader” at the time [*5], and his employer? (He was sacked by the Times for falsifying quotations in a published article [*6].) Of course, you could have found out any of this stuff at any time, but that would have required some effort. You just liked the sound of what he said. Pathetic.

Then again, there are those who, certain that the Remain campaign would win, didn’t vote. Thanks a lot. Do you not understand the difference between a referendum and an election? Obviously not.

Or those who thought it would be amusing to treat the referendum as a protest vote. Mr Kelvin MacKenzie, moral and intellectual titan of our times **, is one such. He was happy to promote the Leave campaign in his gutter press title [*8], but now, less than three days after the result was announced, he writes [*9],

When I put my cross against leave I felt a surge as though for the first time in my life my vote did count. I had power. Four days later, I don’t feel quite the same. I have buyer’s remorse. A sense of be careful what you wish for. To be truthful, I am fearful of what lies ahead.

Buyer’s remorse. The new, must-have accessory for the unthinking man.

2

The electorate would rather rely on their comic books to provide information which, only too late—ie, after the event—, they discover is deceitful and wrong.

Every analysis of the referendum results says that the strongest correlation is between “high educational attainment” and a vote to remain. Let’s call a spade a spade. Many ordinary people

did not bother to research the issues

did not understand that understanding the issues was essential (not a “nice to have”)

chose to believe obvious lies and deceit from politicians via their preferred gutter press outlet (beause it was easy)

did not even try to think about the consequences of their vote

did not think that thinking about the consequences, before they voted, might be a good idea.

This is a dereliction of their responsibility to their country. Their vote was a kneejerk one based on no understanding of, or thought about, the question they were asked to answer.

As a result, many ordinary people have—unless they are very lucky and a workaround can be found (not by them, of course)—screwed this country, and themselves, for good. Well done.

* As his biographer Sonia Purnell wrote in the Independent in may 2013 [*3]

Boris Johnson’s ‘recklessness’ about pregnancy and the feelings of others when committing ‘extramarital adulterous liaisons’ raises questions about his fitness for public office. That was the conclusion of an extraordinary judgment by the Appeal Court this week: that his ‘reckless’ attitude to the women and children involved is a matter of public interest that overrides the normally paramount rights to privacy of a blameless infant.

The judges pointed to the key fact that Johnson was known to have sired two children outside his marriage with different women as behind their decision not to grant a gagging order about his identity. They agreed with an earlier private ruling that he had achieved a ‘level of notoriety’ in his philandering with other women and that fathering two children in this way ‘goes to the issue of recklessness… relevant to both his private and professional character’. …

The three-year-old child, referred to in court as AAA, is the mayor of London’s illegitimate daughter with his former mistress, art consultant Helen Macintyre. …

Johnson has always refused to comment on the child, but friends of his family claim that it has long been accepted by his wife Marina that he is Stephanie’s father.

When reports about Stephanie first surfaced in the press in 2010, Marina threw Johnson out of the marital home for several months and removed her wedding ring. It was the second time she had locked him out – resorting to the same tactic as six years earlier when Johnson was exposed as having had an affair with fellow journalist Petronella Wyatt, which resulted in one abortion and a miscarriage. As the Court of Appeal found, Johnson had ‘fathered a child after a brief adulterous affair (not for the first time)’ and that this had had ‘potentially serious consequences’ for others.

… It is… clear that much pain has been caused by Johnson’s activities to both Marina and her family.

Ms Wyatt, now in her late 40s, is said by friends to have been damaged by her relationship with Johnson, whom she had long expected to marry…

** It was MacKenzie, of course, who traduced Liverpool football supporters when editor of the S*n, by printing without checking disgraceful lies fed to him by the local police. [*7]